The Purgatory Calamity

After Zhou Qingchen left, the finally willing to speak He Ziren, with a cold glint in his eye, fixed his gaze on Pang Jian.

Like a lone wolf, Pang Jian stayed in a secluded corner, always maintaining a posture of silent sitting and adjusting his breath.

He, with his head lowered, was completely indifferent to the exploration of the chaotic pile of rocks by the Zhou and Ning families.

Pang Jian also turned a deaf ear to He Ziren's words.

"I'm talking to you."

Seeing that Pang Jian remained silent, He Ziren, who had taken an instant dislike to him upon meeting, suddenly spoke with an icy voice.

Ignored by Zhou Qingchen for quite some time and with nowhere to vent his annoyance, the young master of the He family had not expected that even a lowly hunter would dare to ignore his questioning.

He frowned and noticed that the eerie cold aura dispersing from the pile of rocks was gathering densely beside Pang Jian.

He Ziren was immediately startled, looking at Pang Jian with a surprised expression, and tiptoed over.

Pretending not to hear his question and immersed in his cultivation, Pang Jian had thought that He Ziren would not bother him, but the He family's son was not willing to let it go.

With no choice but to stop absorbing the "Mysterious Yin Qi," Pang Jian slightly lifted his head and said, "I don't know."

"What are you doing?"

As he approached and felt the extremely low temperature around Pang Jian, the He family's son had no intention of letting him off easily.

"The Spiritual Energy locked in this dead land contains the chilly and deadly 'Mysterious Yin Power'; this is not something ordinary people can endure. If I'm not mistaken, you were absorbing the Mysterious Yin Power earlier, right? And... you're still unharmed?"

He Ziren took a deep breath, as if he had discovered a new continent, and in a low and cold voice exclaimed, "Boy, what vicious spell are you cultivating?"

Only suitable spells, or despised evil cultivators, would dare to try and guide such "Mysterious Yin Power" into their bodies, slowly refining the hidden toxic forces within.

A mere hunter, actually knowing how to refine "Mysterious Yin Power," made He Ziren grow suspicious.

The cold light in his eyes flickered, scrutinizing Pang Jian, and he thought of several ways to torture him, thinking, "Perhaps, I can get some unexpected gains from this hunter."

Pang Jian indifferently said, "You're mistaken."

"I am mistaken?"

He Ziren stepped forward, grabbed the front of Pang Jian's clothes, and lifted him up.

The keen-eyed He family's son stared straight at Pang Jian, with a mocking threat in his laugh, "For a lowly hunter like you, I could kill you just because I'm in a bad mood."

"And you..."

He Ziren bared his teeth, lifting Pang Jian even higher, and mockingly said, "If you dare touch me, with your background and status, you'll have no place to stand in the entire Fourth Realm."

With the realm of Meridians Channeling cultivation, He Ziren's meridians were unobstructed and his Spiritual Power operated freely, making him immensely strong.

Under his powerful grip, even the taller and more robust Pang Jian was lifted into the air by him.

Pang Jian, unable to stand firmly on the ground, hastily drew the Long Blade from his waist in a panicked state, ready to fight desperately.

"Whoosh!"

He Ziren shook his head with a cold chuckle as his body suddenly emanated a hazy radiance, covering himself with Spiritual Power.

"Even with the Long Blade in your hand, you don't qualify to even scratch my skin."

He Ziren, shaking Pang Jian's body like a kite swinging in the wind, with a tone of humiliation coaxed him, "If you don't believe me, you can give it a try."

"Clang!"

Pang Jian indeed swung his blade and stabbed at He Ziren's arm, but it was like striking a copper wall, failing to break through He Ziren's skin and causing him no harm at all.

He Ziren cackled, "I told you it's useless."

Seeing that he could do nothing to He Ziren, and being held up by his clothing, even unable to escape, Pang Jian turned his cold gaze toward the chaotic pile of rocks.

The Ning and Zhou families needed someone familiar with the Solitude Mountain Range. Until their exploration mission was completed, they couldn't do without him.

—He planned to make some noise.

"Answer my questions, or you're going to die right now."

He Ziren suddenly stopped shaking the hand that held Pang Jian, allowing him to stabilize in mid-air, then he pressed his other hand towards Pang Jian's dantian in the Spiritual Sea, whispering, "As long as I can prove you have cultivated evil skills, I will have a reason to kill you, and then Ning Yao can easily be dealt with."

Knowing he could not avoid it, Pang Jian could only scream loudly, trying to attract the attention of the Zhou and Ning families.

But his screams were drowned out by a piercing howl that suddenly emerged from within the pile of rocks.

This time, the eerie wail was even more harrowing and no longer resembled the wind; it sounded like the roaring and furious bellowing of some hidden Demon Fiend!

Upon this sharp and strange howl, anyone who heard it, whether inside or outside the pile of rocks, began to bleed from their ears and nose as if being struck by a malignant spiritual tide.

Not just those from the Ning and Zhou families inside the pile of rocks, but even the Single-horned Rhinoceros and the battle horses on the outside, were all as if struck by a heavy blow, completely disoriented.

Pang Jian's chest felt warm, and the bronze medal that sat close to his skin shined for an instant, keeping his mind and will unaffected by the strange howl.

He quickly came to his senses, only to see that the arm He Ziren had lifted was now helplessly drooping.

Not just that, the hazy radiance covering He Ziren's body with Spiritual Power had also disappeared due to the howling from inside the pile of rocks.

Every person affected by the howl inside and outside the pile of rocks showed a dazed and bewildered look, as if they had forgotten who they were.

As the incessant, piercing howls continued to emerge, Pang Jian immediately realized that the Ning and Zhou families must have again encountered danger and terror within the pile of rocks.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, standing firmly once again, he clenched his hands around the Long Blade as his first move.

The sharp and piercing howls seemed to possess a demonic power to drag people into an abyss of evil. Pang Jian, holding the Long Blade, looked at He Ziren's disoriented face, his pupils cold and deep as an ice cavern.

After only a moment's hesitation, he fiercely thrust the blade tip towards He Ziren's heart.

"Pff!"

```

Without the protection of the hazy spiritual light, Pang Jian's blade edge immediately pierced Mr. He's flesh, continuously delving deeper into his chest cavity.

Under the intense stabbing pain, Ziren actually withstood the demonic power contained in the howl, abruptly roused by the agony.

The young master of the He family, with blood flowing from his ears and nostrils, suddenly woke to see the fearful Pang Jian, with insufficient strength, stabbing at his chest with both hands holding the blade.

Born in the Fourth Realm, a noble young master always looked up to by commoners, he simply couldn't believe his own eyes.

His face, still bleeding, appeared extremely terrifying, eyes filled with rage and impatience, staring fixedly at Pang Jian who was still exerting himself to push further, trying to do something.

"Then I'll give it a try."

Pang Jian chose to meet his gaze directly, his tone and expression were incredibly calm, with not a hint of fear or unease in his eyes.

The blade continued to penetrate deeper, and Pang Jian's hands holding the knife did not tremble at all, as if he had done such things countless times before.

"You!"

Ziren, amidst heart-wrenching pain, opened his mouth to speak but could only spurt out a mouthful of thick blood.

"Boom!"

Just like Yao Qi, he too toppled backward, Pang Jian's long blade still embedded in his chest.

After killing Ziren, who had always harbored malicious intentions against him, with the help of the eerie shrieking sound, Pang Jian took a deep breath and fiercely pulled out the blood-stained blade.

As the blood sprayed wildly, Pang Jian swiftly dodged, holding the blood-smeared blade and looking towards the pile of messy stones.

He was judging what kind of horrific crisis the people from the Ning Family and Zhou Family who entered the stones had encountered, when he suddenly saw ghostly figures drift out from the bodies of the Blood Moon cultivators.

The figures were equally blurry and indistinct, similar to the "Beast Evil" spirits he had drawn out with the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell," which should have entered his Spiritual Sea.

These figures had the shape of humans, and because they were much higher in rank than the "Beast Evil," even he could see them with his naked eye.

The ghostly figures, transformed from the souls of dead cultivators, flew out from the corpses, rushing towards the people from the Ning and Zhou families, with some spirits even slipping into the bodies of the living.

Those possessed by the ghostly figures instantly lost their own consciousness and began to attack the people around them.

"Evil ghosts? Lost souls?"

Pang Jian was secretly astonished, shocked by the spectacle that exceeded his knowledge, and stood rooted to the spot for a moment.

"Boom!"

From behind Zhou Qingchen's towering form, a grandiose red mountain suddenly appeared, slowly hovering above his head.

The Red Mountain floated in the void, dignified and solemn, emitting a boundless aura, as if it could deter all worldly evils.

Zhou Qingchen, who was in a state of stunned shock, promptly regained his spiritual intelligence as the Red Mountain emerged, and with a loud cry, he exclaimed, "Red glory covering the sky!"

As the majestic Divine Mountain rose slowly, brilliant red light burst forth, enveloping the people nearby.

"They are not from Blood Moon; they are Yin Spirit Temple's scoundrels! They're just wearing Blood Moon's clothes! Damn it, it's the Yin Spirit Temple's people who died in this wasteland, their souls transformed into higher-order Spirit Evils!"

```

Following Zhou Qingchen, Han Duping, awakened by the deep red dawn light, stomped and cursed furiously.

"People from the Yin Spirit Temple?"

Ning Yuanshan, Ning Yao, and others were also roused one after another, all cursing the cultivators from the Yin Spirit Temple for why, after their deaths, they wore the clothes of the Blood Moon, causing Han Duping to make a misjudgment and making everyone enter the pile of rocks prematurely.

The loudly shouting Ning Yuanshan took out the Flame Dragon Stone Pillar that had previously helped Pang Jian to fend off the "Beast Evils," igniting a sea of fire once again and covering several individuals who had been possessed by "Spirit Evils."

Under the forceful and yang energy of the scorching heat, the "Spirit Evils" were forcibly driven out of the bodies of the possessed, seeking refuge in the cooler areas nearby.

At this time, Zhou Qingchen, Han Duping, Ning Yuanshan, Ning Yao, and the others exerted their strength, summoning their own artifacts, and pursued the "Spirit Evils" that revealed their tracks.

Several cultivators who had reached the Meridians Channeling Realm joined forces to either obliterate or expel the so-called high-ranking "Spirit Evils."

"Giggle, this hasn't killed you all."

Suddenly a soft and seductive laughter was transmitted through that white paper fan, and when the crowd looked over, they saw strands of blood-red bamboo shooting out from within the paper fan.

Each strand of Blood Bamboo, like bones and muscles, weaved and constructed in the void, swiftly forming into an alluring, ethereal blood shadow.

The blood shadow, without revealing its true face, floated off the ground, giggling as it flew through the void, drifting towards the depths of the Solitude Mountain Range.

"Little fellows, I'm heading inside first, and we will meet again later. Heh, having been trapped in that broken fan for several hundred years, I can finally escape. I will never let the old geezers of the Yin Spirit Temple seal me again."

The svelte figure of the woman muttered to herself as she gradually disappeared from everyone's sight.

The "Spirit Evils" that had escaped from the hands of the Zhou and Ning families, upon her departure, followed one after another from all directions, vanishing from the spectators' field of view as well.

The onlookers, still in shock, wanted to pursue but could not match her speed of departure, and could only watch as she and the "Spirit Evils" disappeared.

"Boom! Boom!"

Soon after she left, the Single-horned Rhinoceroses ridden by the Zhou family collapsed one by one.

The cultivators who had come with Zhou Qingchen also suffered many casualties in this catastrophe, and as for the Ning family, apart from Ning Yao and Ning Yuanshan, only Zhang Heng was still alive.

In just a short time, both the Zhou and Ning families had suffered heavy losses, and everyone from both families looked disheartened and frustrated.

"How did He Ziren also die?"

As Ning Yuanshan collected his wits, he approached the outskirts of the pile of rocks, only to find Mr. He from the He family lying in a pool of blood.

He Ziren's chest had a ferocious bloody hole, still "gurgling" with blood, and he lay there with his eyes wide open staring at the sky, his face filled with rage and unwillingness.

Pang Jian, holding a blood-stained long blade, stood quietly on the side, not saying a word.

Ning Yuanshan's expression severe, he asked coldly, "Did you do this?"

"I, too, was possessed by a Spirit Evil," Pang Jian said helplessly.

...